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Brand New 2013 Tiger 800XC WAY TOO HOT - taking it back.

I don't think it's internal friction so much as it is the rings not sealing perfectly.

Anytime you have a leak in a cylinder, it introduces hysteresis into the pressure/volume curve of the compression/expansion cycle. More fuel has to be burned to offset these hysteresis losses and the engine gets bad gas mileage and gets hot.
Engines get better gas mileage after break in more because the rings start sealing better more than mechanical friction is reduced.
 
You guys are way over thinking this. lol

Are you sure? When we rode a couple weeks ago I observed once your Tiger was too hot for you. Remember when we did that u-turn on dirt? Your rear wheel was spinning way too hot. haha
Good save on that one, forgot to mention to you later.

_
 
Are you sure? When we rode a couple weeks ago I observed once your Tiger was too hot for you. Remember when we did that u-turn on dirt? Your rear wheel was spinning way too hot. haha
Good save on that one, forgot to mention to you later.

_

lol, Yeah, that was the U-turn on 3090 when I missed our turn. There was a time when that would have gotten my heart racing but I do it too much now. ;)
 
One of the best ways to keep an engine from overheating is to drive as if you are down to the fumes in the gas tank and you still have several miles to go. Every pound of gasoline you don't burn is about 18000 BTU of heat your engine doesn't need to get rid of. When the temperatures in August were reaching 105-109 that one summer, I resorted to switching the engine off while waiting at long red lights with four way protected lefts just to keep my air cooled bike from getting too hot.

The people who get incredible gas mileage on closed courses usually block off the radiator and insulate the engine block. It's not because they are purposely driving with overheated engines, it's because they have the opposite problem of overheating. When you are getting triple digit gas mileage in a car while going only 20 mph or so, your problem isn't overheating, your problem is keeping the engine at operating temperature while burning so little fuel.
 
The Tiger is a hot bike. Hotter than any other bike I've owned except maybe my ST-1300.
 
I think I have a new personal benchmark for bike heat and that is from the EBR bike that I test rode yesterday. At a few points along the ride I really did think my legs were burning.
 
Is it because the engines get real hot or is it because the design of the bike has the radiator wash hitting you as you ride?

The consensus from the Tiger forums is post-radiator air on the right side hits the thigh.

This is how knocking down the Fan-On temp by ten degrees or so in the ECU seems to make the difference for those who have reset it.

Wearing pants that leave some air space between the hot air hitting the pants material and the skin seems to do well too. Tight-fitting pants will conduct the heat directly into the skin.
 
The Tiger is a hot bike. Hotter than any other bike I've owned except maybe my ST-1300.

The first gen FJR is a cooker too, all that displacement under tupperware makes heat. Ramp it up to very spirited rpm and multiply.

My Versys is the 'summer in Texas bomb around bike' as I gave up on heat management long ago. The Tiger I rode for 50 miles did not seem to be obnoxiously hot on a very warm day.
 
Is it because the engines get real hot or is it because the design of the bike has the radiator wash hitting you as you ride?

That's a good question. It just radiates heat and it isn't cooler when you're riding so I'm thinking its a little bit of both. Since about the end of May, every time I stop I can hear the fan, so I know its on a lot of the time. Not sure how that's helping anything since I think the fans blow forward so they are fighting the natural air flow when moving. I live a mile off a Farm to Market road, down a county road and when I pull into the garage the fan is running. I was running 70 mph, then 50-55 and a couple hundred feet down the drive so it's not slow speed. I can't see how making the fan come on at a lower temp will help either, except at crawling speed. Unlike the ST-1300, my crotch isn't hot, it is lower on the thighs , near the knee and shins. Even the wife says its hot. I'm assuming the engine coolant temp is running about 200 degrees like most liquid cooled engines.
 
The consensus from the Tiger forums is post-radiator air on the right side hits the thigh.

This is how knocking down the Fan-On temp by ten degrees or so in the ECU seems to make the difference for those who have reset it.

Wearing pants that leave some air space between the hot air hitting the pants material and the skin seems to do well too. Tight-fitting pants will conduct the heat directly into the skin.

So the ECU controls engine temp and not a thermostat?
 
I still want one. I wonder how the heat compares to something like an RC51 where the rads sit on the sides, right in front of your legs. It sure was nice in the winter.
 
I have been riding in 95+ degree weather on this bike and I still have ZERO issues with heat. A lot of it is just the bikes you are accustomed to. I have rode naked sport bikes before the Tiger and the Tiger seems no different to me at all.
 
I rented an Eagle Rider Tiger 800 in LA last year for 3 days. I enjoyed riding the bike but the best of the engine was excessive. It seemed like 85 degrees and higher was bad while below that it was not a problem.

Mark Jensen
 
I have been riding in 95+ degree weather on this bike and I still have ZERO issues with heat. A lot of it is just the bikes you are accustomed to. I have rode naked sport bikes before the Tiger and the Tiger seems no different to me at all.

+1

My theory on this is that those who experience painful heat may be wearing tight pants that pass the heat to the skin more directly.

I wear mesh pants year-round and in the Summer often have bare skin under the mesh in the area where the hot air is blowing. Honestly had never even noticed the heat before this thread.

When I do notice heat at all now it is when stopped for a while at a light or something similar, and still isn't any more uncomfortable than any other bike I've ridden.

It seems that them dag-nabbed infernal combustion engines make heat. Surprise, surprise, surprise. ;)
 
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Most air cooled engines have this issue when stopped, hence my stoplight heat shield above. The bike is fat and my legs contact it directly with feet down - nowhere for the heat to go but onto my inner thighs. By contrast in anatomy, the airhead design of the GSPD poses no heat issues whatever, even though I was warned that my "feet would get hot" (from a non-airhead rider). I think those jugs actually chill the air a bit. And interestingly, the bike you would think be the hottest - the chopper - never radiates heat above ambient garage temperature.
 
Riding back from the Johnson City meet and greet the heat coming off the Connies engine was crazy. Seems like the mesh pants made it worse. Had the legs partial unzipped and I was baking. Stopped and zipped them up got a gator aid and that helped tremendously.
 
It definitely helps to wear riding pants over whatever you are wearing when on the Tiger. I wear mesh pants over shorts on the Gold Wing and Triumph Trophy, but can't do that on the Tiger.
 
I think somebody should let me borrow their Tiger for a weekend so I can see just how hot they get :trust:
 
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